The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson
think it’s time to share the news with the world: I’m in love with Eva Ibbotson. This is the second of her novels which I’ve read, and it’s secured her as one of my favourite writers.
Set in 1919, The Secret Countess begins with our dazzling heroine, Anna Grazinsky, having fled her native Russia with a swathe of her aristocratic peers after the 1917 revolution. Anna has made her new home in England, but sadly for the Grazinskys, their housemaid has disappeared along with the jewels which would have secured the family’s financial security. Now Anna is left with only one option – a life of service in the home of the Earl of Westerholme.
Humbly throwing herself into the demanding and unique world of the below-stairs staff, Anna becomes an integral part of the team preparing for the Earl’s impending nuptials to the beautiful, intelligent Muriel Hardwicke. But the Earl can’t help but notice that there’s something different about the new housemaid living under his roof.
This novel is so much more than a sweeping romance. It’s a charming social commentary suffused with shrewd and joyous wit, which had me scoffing with every turn of the page. I’m in constant awe of Ibbotson’s ability to bring a character to life with just a few words, from the Dowager with “a penchant for teagowns and flowing chiffon scarves which so often seem to go with a belief in spiritualism” to Bakserville, the snobby hound who will not deign to go below stairs. I can’t wait to dive into the next of these warm, wry, delicious novels! – Lottie
The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides
I’ll be amazed if the year delivers a book more enjoyable and informative than Hampton Sides’ latest triumph, The Wide Wide Sea.
This narrative history tells the story of the fatal third expedition of Captain James Cook. Beginning in 1776, the nominal mission of the expedition was to return Mai, a Polynesian man, to his home island of Raiatea. Mai was a refugee living in Tahiti, after the murder and enslavement of his family by invaders from the nearby island of Bora Bora. Festering with grievance, Mai had vowed to return to Raiatea to restore his family’s honour; after witnessing the power of English weapons after their abortive attempt to claim Tahiti and the violence that ensued, Mai returned to England with Cook’s second expedition to acquire an arsenal of his own. He was introduced to British society by the naturalist Joseph Banks, went on to become friends with Lord Sandwich and Dr Samuel Johnson, and met King George III. The story of Mai is a poignant allegory of first contact between England and the people of Oceania, and more than interesting enough for an entire book. But Mai is only half the story.
The real, secret mission of Cook’s third expedition was to discover the Northwest Passage, the much sought after sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The quest for the Northwest passage would allow the British to avoid the Spanish and outmaneuver the French, with enormous benefits for trade; all without mentioning the enormous cash prize promised to the first ship to find the passage.
Cook was a talented cartographer, enthusiastic amateur ethnographer, and an inspiring leader. Many men had signed on to his third expedition after serving with Cook before: but he was different on the third expedition. Corporal punishment on his own men, violent policies towards native people, and a fortnight mistaken for the Hawaiian god Lono, all formed links in the chain that bound him to his fate. Sides examines the historical mystery of what ailed the Cook from all sides, while relishing in the action and adventure of this tale of exploration.
The Wide Wide Sea contains all the excitement of a Patrick O’Brian thriller, with the considerable nuance of a historian alive to the far-reaching implications of the story he’s telling. It’s the perfect read for fans of The Wager, Erebus, and The Ship Beneath the Ice, or anybody interested in illuminating histories and portraits of larger-than-life characters. – Sam
Tongues I by Anders Nilsen
Tongues is an ever-inventive, hallucinatory retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus transposed to the modern world, and it couldn’t look any better.
Via intricate, sprawling panels, we follow three interlinking stories: a captive God’s friendship with the eagle that eats his liver each day for providing humanity with fire (and in this tale, language); a young girl tasked with murder accompanied by a surly chicken; and a hapless man wandering the deserts of East Asia with a teddy strapped to his back.
If you’d like to see an eagle try to make sense of an iPhone alongside a cult dedicated to the god Omega, all wrapped up in a genuinely thoughtful, philosophical take on the state of humanity, this the the graphic novel for you. Fans of American Gods and the Netflix series Kaos will lap Tongues right up (pun intended). – Sôffi